3 Rules for Burning Fat Over 40

One of the side effects of aging is that you lose the ability to burn fat at the drop of a hat. So if you’re over 40 and want to lose belly fat, here’s what you have to do:

Rule #1: Eat a low-calorie diet, focusing on whole, natural foods.

Everyone needs to be eating more fruits and vegetables, no matter how old they are. So try to add one extra serving every day – starting tomorrow – until you are up to 10 total servings per day. The fiber will help fill you up. And by reducing processed foods in your diet at the same time, you will have more energy and you will lose weight. It’s that easy.

Rule #2: Use resistance training to sculpt your muscles.

As you get older, strength becomes more and more important to your health and well-being. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. So make sure your exercise program includes total-body strength training at least twice per week, preferably three times.

Rule #3: Do interval training instead of long, slow cardio.

Researchers from Australia found that women who did only 20 minutes of interval training three times per week were able to lose more belly fat than women who did 40 minutes of long, slow cardio. So switch your program to short-burst exercise and you’ll get more results in less time!

[Ed. Note: If you’re not sure of the best fat-burning exercises to try, fitness expert Craig Ballantyne can help. In his Turbulence Training program, he’ll reveal how you can burn fat and build muscle with three 45-minute workouts a week. Get the details here.]

Craig Ballantyne is a Strength & Conditioning coach in Toronto, author of Turbulence Training, a contributing author to Men’s Health magazine, and a member of the Training Advisory Board for Maximum Fitness and Oxygen magazines. Craig’s fat loss, muscle-building website TurbulenceTraining.com features his best-selling Turbulence Training for Fat Loss program and TTmembers.com offers access...